Docents and Museum Education

Many art museums rely upon volunteers, often titled docents, to implement a range of educational offerings, including guided gallery experiences. As such, docents regularly engage visitors more than most museum staff members. A review of literature spanning over a century provides support for an examination of four reoccurring themes within museum education and docent history: uncertain definitions, professionalization, theoretical foundation, and embedded traditions. Subsequently, consideration of the past offers context for examining contemporary museum education programs that develop the capacity of docents as change agents, including offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic and developing inclusive practice through docent education. The chapter concludes with an envisioning of the future for docents within museum education.

Thoughts and Highlights Involving an Urban Museum Education Partnership and a University

This chapter examines the partnership between an urban art museum and a university. It involves museum educators, art education faculty, and undergraduate students. It specifically explores the development of hands-on museum activities for elementary students created by the university participants. The chapter is written from a higher education perspective. It provides a description of all facets of the partnership from its planning to the completion of the museum activities. The partnership provided the university students authentic museum experiences and ways to make professional connections with museum professionals. Recommendations for those who wish to develop university/museum partnerships are shared.

Experiencing art from a distance. Digital technologies for museums during and beyond the pandemic

This article proposes a reflection on the role of digital technologies in emergency museum education during the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic, starting from some relevant experiences at national and international level. In particular, it explores the use of serious games and storytelling as tools to realize the idea of a participatory, accessible, interactive and inclusive museum: a museum that doesn’t go into quarantine, but tries its best to keep the relationship with the audience. Vivere l’arte a distanza. Le tecnologie digitali per i musei durante e oltre la pandemia. Questo articolo propone una riflessione sul ruolo delle tecnologie digitali nella didattica museale di emergenza durante la pandemia da Sars-Cov-2, a partire da alcune esperienze di rilievo in ambito nazionale e internazionale. In particolare, si approfondisce l’uso dei serious games e dello storytelling come strumenti per realizzare l’idea di un museo partecipato, accessibile, interattivo e inclusivo: un museo che non va in quarantena, ma fa di tutto per mantenere viva la relazione con il suo pubblico.

MEDIAÇÃO CULTURAL E ARTE/EDUCAÇÃO NÃO-FORMAL NA CAFUA DAS MERCÊS = CULTURAL MEDIATION AND NON-FORMAL ART / EDUCATION IN CAFUA DAS MERCÊS

O artigo objetiva a reflexão sobre educação não-formal em espaço museológico, no sentido de desenvolver habilidades de leitura de imagens, contextualizando-as e, elaborar propostas poéticas embasadas na educação museal (não-formal) e arte/educação por meio da mediação cultural no Museu Cafua das Mercês (Museu do Negro).Tem por finalidade descrever a proposição de práticas educacionais não-formais em mediação cultural na Cafua das Mercês, integrante do complexo MHAM (Museu Artístico e Histórico do Maranhão) embasando-se na educação museal e arte/educação. A educação não-formal contribui para o crescimento cognitivo, emocional e social dos indivíduos como sujeitos de pertencimento identitário, como o que preconiza a Lei n.10.639/2003 sobre o ensino de história e cultura afro-brasileira e africana. Utilizou-se como aporte teórico, Barbosa (2009), tendo o museu como melhor possibilidade de aprendizagem do que a escola; Gohn (2015), ensino de arte não-formal; Selbach (2010), didáticas do ensino de arte; Cury (2005); Chagas (2005), espaços museológicos e a legislação pertinente ao tema. A proposição metodológica é a de realizar-se visitas mediadas aos museus e a produção de reflexão crítica por parte dos educandos e docentes. Espera-se que a partir das visitas ao Museu do Negro, haja ressignificação da visão quanto ao escravizado.AbstractThe article aims to reflect on non-formal education in a museum space, in order to develop skills in reading images, contextualizing them and developing poeticproposals based on museum education (non-formal) and art/education throughcultural mediation in the Cafua das Mercês Museum (Negro Museum). Its purpose is to describe the proposition of non-formal educational practices in cultural mediation in Cafua das Mercês, part of the MHAM complex (Artistic and Historical Museum of Maranhão) based on museum education and art/education. Non-formal education contributes to the cognitive, emotional and social growth of individuals as subjects of identity belonging, as advocated by Law n.10.639/2003 on the teaching of AfroBrazilian and African history and culture. It was used as theoretical support, Barbosa (2009), with the museum as a better learning possibility than the school; Gohn (2015), non-formal art teaching; Selbach (2010), didactics of art education; Cury (2005); Chagas (2005), museum spaces and legislation relevant to the theme. The methodological proposition is to carry out mediated visits to museums and the production of critical reflection by students and teachers. It is expected that from the visits to the Museu do Negro, there will be a redefinition of the vision regarding the enslaved.

Museum education and sustainable development: A public pedagogy

The question of how sustainability can be incorporated into all areas of society encourages museums to rethink their approaches to society and education. In this article, we argue that museums have the potential to become key public pedagogies for sustainable development and thereby play a crucial role in encouraging participation in sustainability issues. Due to the complexity of sustainability issues, and the potential disturbances of and difficult experiences resulting from exhibitions displaying them, we suggest that a theoretical framing for the teaching and learning of sustainability issues in museums is necessary. Thus, we argue that in relation to exhibitions displaying sustainability issues, museum education would benefit from a didactical framework in which the relation between teaching, learning, content and situation is taken into account. We also argue that a theoretical framework explaining the relation between exhibition, visitor and educational situation could inform pedagogical discussions about how to incorporate sustainability education into museums. Therefore, we suggest a transactional conceptualization of museum pedagogy for sustainability museum education based on John Dewey’s educational and aesthetic philosophy and Louise Rosenblatt’s theory of reading and writing as a potential approach to the teaching and learning of sustainability issues in museum education.

Between social museology and the traditional museum: The case of the Murillo La Greca Museum and the 2019 Occupation Convocation - Recife, PE

The research aimed on the Murillo La Greca Museum and the 2019 Occupation Call, to analyze in the light of Social Museology how educational actions tension traditional museums to more collaborative and democratic practices. It was used authors as Mario Chagas, Glauber Guedes Ferreira Lima, Bruno Brulon, Marcele Pereira, Stránský, Tereza Scheiner e Hugues de Varine-Bohan, to stablish the theoretical references between the tensions and ruptures of the Museology through the museum space. Furthermore, other authors whose approach the museum education, sociology and anthropology composed the necessary outline to analyze the data and contextualize the object in a vast discussion about the museums in the contemporary era. Through by a participative research of an exploratory characteristic and data survey about the 2019 Occupation Summon (until March 2020) in the Murillo La Greca Museum, it was able to analyze the educational activities developed during this period and reflect on the relevance of these practices, in a context of a traditional museum, for the decolonization of the museology process and the democratization of the museum space access. Thereby, it was looking for an increase of experimentations possibilities, privileging the educational sector as the engine of new practices for the museum transformations.Key words: Social Museology, Museum Education, Traditional Museums, Democratization, Decoloniality

Thoughts on indigenous cultures and their encounters with children in museum education

This paper is about issues in museum education, starting from the discussion: how to discuss about indigenous histories and cultures with young children in a museum? How has this subject been dealt with? The expographic gaps are here used as the main setting to think over methodologies that help to talk about these questions. We will seek ways to understand how indigenous cultures have been represented and which points of view may help us to widen the mediations targeted to a child audience. Therefore, based on authors that discuss childhood, education and museum education, we think about potential and essential overlaps between mediation, children, and indigenous cultures and histories. key words: Indigenous Histories and Cultures; Children; Museum Education